Stuttgart and Tübingen

In the past two days I was in Stuttgart and then Tübingen.
I visited Chiara and Maridalys in Stuttgart yesterday. Wissaf, Arthur, Rebecca, Nehle and Melanie were all there too!!
We went out to eat, and then just hung out on the castle grounds. Took pictures, played volleyball and tag, and just talked. It was fun!!!
Then today I was in Tübingen (a small city near Stuttgart) with Oda and Tabea. We visited Herbert's oldest brother there. We went to the castle and then walked around the city, which I find very cute. We then went on a walk where we got to see many different types of Orchids.
Again, very good time.
Wednesday I leave for Berlin, very excited!!!!!!!!!

Between the whole bike thing and Jachenau

So I actually did stuff in between my biking accident and going to Jachenau. I just didn't manage to write a post about it. Although a little delayed here it is:
First off, the first of May is a holiday in Germany. It's the day almost every family goes out for a hike or bike tour or something outdoorsy
I went on a "hike" with my host family in the Pflaz. It was really nice weather. Hikes here in Germany are not what I would call a hike in the U.S. I know I've probably mentioned this before, but I just don't know what we would even call them in the U.S. Probably something along the lines of nature walk. Anyways it's a walk (maybe with hills) from restaurant to restaurant. On this particular day it was to four different restaurants. Where we stopped each time and had something to eat or drink. At one of these stops the adults took it apon themselves to say how strange it is in the U.S. that when we go hiking there are never any restaurants along the way. They all agreed (those that have been to the U.S. included) that they have no idea how we Americans can hike that way. I found this very amusing.
As said it was a gorgeous day though.There was a cool botanical garden on the walk. It even had a redwood!We even met a horse along the way. He was huge!!!(which you can't see in this picture) But really really big.
My next adventure was visiting Straßburgh and Europa-Parliment!!I must say I love hearing French spoken and knowing enough French to be able to help people order things in pastry shops. It was soooooooo much fun to see all the exchange students again, because we hadn't seen each other in a while actually.The pastry shops were, needless to say, amazing.
Europa-Parliment was really cool. We got to see the last session before the new officials are elected this June. We also got to see a couple of new bills passed.
Long story short it was a good time.
Oh and I of course went to visit (with other friends) my good friend the castle gardens :)

Jachenau

So last weekend we were in Jachenau.
Jachenau is a village of about 700 people....
It's in OberBayern (Bavaria below Munich).
It's in the Alps, with lots of lakes.
To put it shortly it's gorgeous!!!!!!!!
We were there to celebrate my Host Grandmother's birthday. Her birthday was actually in February, but she wanted to come back to Jachenau with her family. Oda's family vacationed there every summer when she was a kid.
We drove down Friday after school. When we got there the weather was a little iffy but it still looked really cool. The first thing we did after unpacking was to go down to the lake. Quickly followed by hitting up the trampoline. :)
This is Tabea and Thea by the lake, you can't see the mountains in the background very well.

My youngest cousin here, Valentin, he's 3.
Thea, 9
Before too long it was dark. We (oh and by the way by we I mean myself, Tabea, and her cousin Thea) went down to the lake again with Meekah.
The next day we woke up and found the adorable puppy Rex. He belonged to the owner's of the farm we were staying at. He's a swiss mountain dog, and sooooooooooooooo ubelievabley cute!

We then went "rowing" which was actually one of those fishing boats with oars and without skulls. I do not have pictures of this due to the fact I didn't want to risk my camera going in the water.
When we got back Nonna and Großvatti had all ready arrived with Janus, my oldest host cousin, who I hadn't met before.
We had lunch, which was really just cake.
The boys (oh just for a perspective all my host cousins are boys except for Thea) then decided it would be a good idea to go swimming. I went but decided not to go in. It was very entertaining.... I stuck my feet in and it was freezing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Some of the boys swimming.
On our way back we met up with Herbert, my host dad. I told him he should go swimming too. He then replied "I'll get in when you get in."
Being me, I replied "ok, no problem."
To which he replied "uh oh I shouldn't have said that."
Shortly after the swim we walked to a restaurant and the old farm house that Oda and her family used to stay at.
We then had dinner at the restaurant. Some people played different musical pieces. After the others were finished with the keyboard Valentin decided he wanted to play as well :)
After dinner we had a "Nachtwanderung" back to the farm. It was beautiful!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The stars were amazing!!!!!!! It smelled like Lake Placid. It was so dark at some points you couldn't see who was walking in front of you. At one point some of my cousins decided it would be a good idea just to stop. One of my other cousins and I then proceeded to run into them (literally, okay well walk) in the dark, which was quite amusing.
The next day was gorgeous!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
After I woke up I went down to the lake and just took pictures.
The water was such a pretty turquoise.
After breakfast we went on a walk around part of the lake.
To do this you literally had to walk through the cows and their fields...
We also found one horse, which quite intrigued Valentin.
We stopped at one point and tried to get Meekah to swim....
It didn't work very well.
You can't tell in this picture but she's trying to go in as little as possible and extending her whole body to keep her feet on solid ground..... She's no Xander....
We then proceeded to go to our swimming spot from the previous day
Yes this is indeed the view you get from there......
After the first time........
Preparing for the second jump in.....

The second time...........
After the FOURTH time in the water.........
We then went back to the house
And had lunch

After some last minute pictures.........
It was time to go...... :(
Jannis was exhausted on the way back..........
But Tabea and I were awake enough to take pictures
So I'm doing very well and after this last weekend don't really feel like coming back to the U.S.
I'm now on vacation again :)
And will be going to Berlin and Rome :)

And this is what happen when you give me a bike.......

So this is the day of.

This is the day after.

This is a couple days later.....
Long story short I fell of my bike...... and onto my legs and face...
As a result broke my nose....
But as you can see things are healing well

One week later

And my lovely knee

Two weeks later
So things are pretty much all healed. Everyone here keeps asking how it's healed and I keep saying my nose isn't fully healed, it's still broken. Everyone seems surprised by this despite that it's been less then 3 weeks since the accident. I find this quite amusing....
But I'm back to rowing and riding so I'm happy :)